Chris and I competed in the Angels Triathlon today at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, NC (just outside of W-S). It was an official sprint distance, so we swam 300m, biked 20k (12.4 miles) and ran 5k (3.1 miles). Our start times were 8:33 and 9:07 - and Chris had to be back on Wake's campus at 11am! Nothing like a little extra motivation to get movin! (We made it there at 11:05 - just in time to tell a soccer player she couldn't play in the game because she might have a fractured rib...she was not pleased).
The race was started a few years back by some families who had lost children to untimely deaths. The idea is to write an angel's name on your arm and compete with the spirit of that angel throughout the race. Chris wrote GP4, in honor of his four grandparents who have passed away; I had them write Heidi, in honor of Heidi White, our music teacher who died just after childbirth (an obvious catalyst of my issue with pregnancy).I felt the swim went slightly better (still not great though). I hit the feet of the person in front of me like four different times (which in pool triathlons means you should pass them at the wall) but that happened with like a quarter length to go, so I had to do this awkward breaststroke/head-above-water freestyle waiting up - and then by the time we got to the end, I didn't have the energy or the flow to actually pass the person... Anyway, I didn't swallow so much water that I thought I was going to puke this time - a huge improvement in my book!
We decided that road bikes are a necessity if we are going to continue this sport. We have these fatty hybrid mountain bikes, and boy does it show as these road cyclists with their clipped in shoes go flying by you with apparent effortlessness. That would be a major expense, so someday....someday...The run was a lot hillier than the Ramblin Rose course, and my quads totally cramped up with about a mile to go. I actually had to walk a few paces and try to get rid of the grapefruit sized knots just above both of my knees. (But I still finished in under 26 minutes, so apparently I made good use of the downhill portions...)
Our times are as follows (again not that y'all really care, just for the sake of data keeping for the future):
Dawn
Swim - 7:39, T1 - 2:01, Bike - 42:47, T2 - 1:15, Run 25:45 --- Overall time: 1 hour, 19 minutes, and 25 seconds. It appears that I repeated my performance as 5th in my age group, but I moved up to #40 overall in the women's division. Woo hoo!
Chris
Swim - 6:40, T1 - 2:00, Bike - 43:18, T2 - 1:08, Run 23:46 --- Overall time: 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 50 seconds.
Triathlons really are great fun! For those of you who say you get bored with working out, this definitely mixes it up for you - and provides quite the challenge! We can't wait to scope out the Illinois options for summer 2009!
4 comments:
I can't believe the race was this weekend--I kept thinking you had a few more weeks to train.
Big, huge, congrats to you both. I had no idea Christopher could swim so fast. It must be because of that time he took it upon himself to take the bus over to the Olson's (uninvited) so that he could use their pool!
Congrats you two! Love you!
(oh Brianna saw your pictures while I was reading this last night and she screamed "Dawn! Chris!" and waved "Hi" to you both.) Miss you!
Way to go! I especially love Chris in the biker shorts! :)
Dawn! You are going to be a buff babe when you come back! Congrats to you both. That is an awesome accomplishment. My Chris (as in Vastine) is totally interested in triathlons, so perhaps you could give him some pointers...and a family friendly training schedule. :)
Post a Comment